The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything

"I hope everyone reads this book. It has become such a crucial thing for all of us to understand." —Erin Burnett, CNN "An  ideal tour guide for your journey into the depths of the rabbit hole  that is QAnon. It even shows you a glimmer of light at the exit." —Cullen Hoback, director of HBO's Q: Into the Storm Its  messaging can seem cryptic, even nonsensical, yet for tens of thousands  of people, it explains everything:  What is QAnon, where did it come  from, and is the Capitol insurgency a sign of where it’s going next? On October 5th, 2017, President Trump made a cryptic remark in the  State Dining Room at a gathering of military officials. He said it felt  like “the calm before the storm”—then refused to elaborate as puzzled  journalists asked him to explain.  But on the infamous message boards of  4chan, a mysterious poster going by “Q Clearance Patriot,” who claimed  to be in “military intelligence,” began the elaboration on their own. In the days that followed, Q’s wild yarn explaining Trump's remarks  began to rival the sinister intricacies of a Tom Clancy novel, while  satisfying the deepest desires of MAGA-America.  But did any of what Q  predicted come to pass? No. Did that stop people from clinging to every  word they were reading, expanding its mythology, and promoting it wider  and wider? No. Why not? Who were these rapt listeners? How do  they reconcile their worldview with the America they see around them?  Why do their numbers keep growing? Mike Rothschild, a journalist  specializing in conspiracy theories, has been collecting their stories  for years, and through interviews with QAnon converts, apostates, and  victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics, he is  uniquely equipped to explain the movement and its followers. In The Storm Is Upon Us,  he takes readers from the background conspiracies and cults that fed  the Q phenomenon, to its embrace by right-wing media and Donald Trump,  through the rending of families as loved ones became addicted to Q’s  increasingly violent rhetoric, to the storming of the Capitol, and on. And as the phenomenon shows no sign of calming despite Trump’s loss of  the presidency—with everyone from Baby Boomers to Millennial moms  proving susceptible to its messaging—and politicians starting to openly  espouse its ideology, Rothschild makes a compelling case that mocking  the seeming madness of QAnon will get us nowhere. Rather, his  impassioned reportage makes clear it's time to figure out what QAnon  really is — because QAnon and its relentlessly dark theory of everything  isn’t done yet.